Tag Archives: Student Blogging Challenge

Hello, it’s Us!

Hello, bloggers we haven’t met yet!

We are a friendly, curious, and crazy group of grade 6 & 7 students in a classroom in a school in a small town on the left coast of Canada. We invite you to read our About Me and Where I Live pages on our student blogs, listed in the sidebar.

Find out who is into kickboxing, skiing, VR, reading, hammer throw, basketball, tennis, YouTube, scootering, gymnastics, writing, hockey, gaming, soccer, cooking, robotics, unicorns, snowboarding, dance, geography, horseback riding… I think you’ll agree that we are a very interesting crew.

We look forward to meeting you on your blog, so please leave your url with your friendly comment.

Howdy, (World) Neighbour!

Welcome by alborzshawn

Actually, the key is to connect!

Make yourself at home– we welcome you!

If you’re here from the Student Blogging Challenge or Quad Blogging, please say where you’re from, what you like to do, and something unique about yourself. We enjoy meeting our neighbours, be you from our school, our Valley, our country – continent – hemisphere – or many, many time zones away.

Our friendly promise: when you leave a comment on this blog or the student blogs we will do our best to answer back on our blogs and try to leave a comment on yours if you leave a link.

Please leave thoughtful comments, more than “Hey, nice blog, come see my blog!” We call that Nicki Nicki Nine Doors commenting. It’s like ringing our door bell and running away. If you are from the UK, you might call it Knock Knock Ginger while in the US it’s known as Ding Dong Ditch. We would like to open the door on real conversations.

So please, take time to read our work, think about what we say, offer feedback or ask a question. We will try to do the same.

Bloggers, do you get “Nicki Nicki Nine Doors” comments? How do you handle them? What should teachers and students be doing to encourage quality conversations on blogs?

Stop! Don’t Talk to Me!

Seriously.

Dot hand

I’m not that interesting. The action is really next door in the sidebar. Right there—> on the right—>in the sidebar.

Now, you may have come here because my good friend Miss Wyatt, that knitter of student bloggers, has told you to come and leave a comment. Not that you should ignore her direction–just consider yourself redirected.

So look right: there’s so much interesting reading. Words worth your time. Read some. Ponder some. Comment some.

Here is just a handful of what you’ll find:

  • Meghan gallops off on one of her favourite animals
  • Jack features a brave Greek who went after a monster
  • Matt tells you about two adorable four-legged friends
  • Arwen keeps you guessing
  • Liam ponders the universe
  • Kendra wraps up an exciting k9 adventure (you’ll want to read all four parts!)
  • Laina wonders about bad hair days
  • Keenan invites you into a Lego tale
  • Molly looks down and sees blue
  • Mathew discusses the future
  • Greyson rats out his teacher for being a loser
  • Charlie goes to the dogs
  • Max lols
  • Jordan makes me hungry
  • Darion does, too
  • Amber rolls the dice
  • Maya follows an amazing journey
  • Orion offers you a chocolate bar
  • Noah plays games
  • So does Daniel
  • Andrew plays on two wheels
  • Ethan plays on four wheels
  • Zach shares dog and cat stories
  • Jane reveals all about Larry
  • Reid remembers Summer fun
  • Jared, well, no surprise here: Jared talks about turtles

So, I am seriously serious.

Don’t talk to me, talk to the Huzzahnian bloggers. I am going to close the door on comments. Have a nice day.

Image: Dot hand by Tjook

Hello? Hello! We’re Skyping Tasmania!

Blogging is one way of connecting with people–Skype is another!

Through the student blogging competition we’ve connected with Miss Wyatt in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. Many of us have read and commented on her grade 6/7 class blogs. On Thursday at 2 pm our time we will meet up via Skype for a face-to-face chat. It will be 9 am Friday for them.

We know we have a lot in common, but we also know that there is a lot that we think we know, but we don’t know, you know?

So to prepare for our conversation, please think about…

  • what we should know ahead of time about Australia and Tasmania so we don’t sound foolish
  • what questions we can ask to learn more about life in their community
  • blogging questions for these experienced bloggers and their teacher
  • what we can show that would give a good picture about who we are and how we live
  • anything else we should do or say that would help us understand each other better

Share your thoughts in a comment below!

And if you want to read more by Miss Wyatt’s students, go to her sidebar and look for them under 2008 Students.

Photo credit Tassie Flag by ozjimbob

Our Elections Were Free and Fair

Have you ever had a class election?

Our class has. Different people had different roles in our election. There were five people running for three seats. Another role was campaign manager who helped with promoting the person running. Different parties put up signs all around the classroom and one party even had a video to present.

When it came down to voting day more roles were added to keep the election fair. One of them was the Returning Officer whose job was to keep the voters’ privacy. For example if someone was looking at someone else’s ballot the Returning Officer would escort them out of the polling station.

Another important role was the Poll Clerk. His job was to make sure people only voted once. For example once the Returning officer handed the voter his ballot the Poll Clerk would make him sign on the voters list then he would cross out his name. When the voter returned to put his ballot in the box the Poll Clerk would sign his name on the voters list to show that the voter had submitted his vote.

Many people tried to disturb the privacy of the voters but it was dealt with.

Someone tried to put up political advertising at the polling station, but he was stopped by the Returning Officer because you can’t influence the voters.

Someone tried to spy into the voting booth, but the Returning Officer put a stop to that, too!

An unregistered voter (Mr. Green, our principal) tried to vote but was not allowed to. He was not between the age of 9 and 13 and was not a resident of Huzzahnia!

One voter tried to vote in another person’s place but the impostor was taken away!

One candidate threatened a voter to get his vote, but the Returning Officer called the police and he was taken away.

All in all it was a superb election and everyone had fun!

Huzzahnia’s Class Council Election!

Guest Post

By a Division 16 student… the Returning Officer

Friday, Nov. 14 was an important date for Huzzahnia.  We held an election for our classes new council.  During the “All Candidates Meeting”, candidates delivered their speeches persuading people for their vote.  Here is an interview with one of the five candidates who’s nick-name is “Turtle Eating Crumpet”

R.O.: What was it like running for class council?

T.E.C.: I think it was a great experience, and it was fun to stand up and make people laugh in my speech. The monkey suit was the BEST!

R.O.: What will you try to change in Huzzahnia?

T.E.C.: My council and I are planning a party soon, but we’re not sure of what to do (yet).

R.O.: Do you believe that the thoughts of the residents here in Huzzahnia are important?

T.E.C.: Yes I do, and that’s why I ran! I believe that a council works by thoughts of other people, and that helps them to decide what they have to do in order to NOT BE BORED WITH THEIR JOB (Oh, so far I’m not…)!!

R.O.: Did you enjoy working with the other candidates during the election and afterwards?

T.E.C.: There were times where I felt like I couldn’t do anything more than what the other candidates had done, but I enjoyed it all the same. Although I did have a great time with my team and our election was fair. We were all nice to each other, and we weren’t allowed to do anything negative. I wouldn’t have anyways, though.

R.O.: Thank you for contributing to our needs and wants through out the election and for months to come.

During the election, I as the returning officer faced many challenges from unregistered voters to pencil bandits. Residents would come up one by one to get a ballot and proceed to the voting booth after signing the voters list. After all the votes were in, Hayden and Ms. Smith counted the votes and our new class council was announced!

It was an exciting day for one and all, especially the new class council! Thank you to all the candidates, and well done! Congratulations to our new council!

Is there an election where you live? Have you ever been envolved in an election? Please comment!

Our Classroom: A Democratic Dictatorial Monarchy?

As Queen of the Universe and Supreme Ruler of Huzzahnia,

I declare that I will occasionally provide opportunities for direct democracy, through secret ballot or show of hands, and I may also grant some decision-making power to the directly elected class council. But it depends on how I am feeling.

This is my official Toadstich which grants me amazing powers, most notably, hp 500, which comes in very handy.  My royal sword is a great comfort to me.

This is my Mythl: please note my Queenly Power. It helps me keep my head while all about me others are losing theirs.

These wonderful playing cards are the creation of Daniel and Kris. They developed the concept for these cards back in grade 3 and are reviving it now. I am thrilled, and look forward to reading their blog post on the topic soon.